Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

7 Yahweh said to Noah, “Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation. ² You shall take seven pairs of every clean animal with you, the male and his female. Of the animals that are not clean, take two, the male and his female. ³ Also of the birds of the sky, seven and seven, male and female, to keep seed alive on the surface of all the earth. ⁴ In seven days, I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. I will destroy every living thing that I have made from the surface of the ground.”

⁵ Noah did everything that Yahweh commanded him.

⁶ Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth. ⁷ Noah went into the ship with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, because of the floodwaters. ⁸ Clean animals, unclean animals, birds, and everything that creeps on the ground ⁹ went by pairs to Noah into the ship, male and female, as God commanded Noah. ¹⁰ After the seven days, the floodwaters came on the earth. ¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the sky’s windows opened. ¹² It rained on the earth forty days and forty nights.

¹³ In the same day Noah, and Shem, Ham, and Japheth—the sons of Noah—and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered into the ship— ¹⁴ they, and every animal after its kind, all the livestock after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort. ¹⁵ Pairs from all flesh with the breath of life in them went into the ship to Noah. ¹⁶ Those who went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God commanded him; then Yahweh shut him in. ¹⁷ The flood was forty days on the earth. The waters increased, and lifted up the ship, and it was lifted up above the earth. ¹⁸ The waters rose, and increased greatly on the earth; and the ship floated on the surface of the waters. ¹⁹ The waters rose very high on the earth. All the high mountains that were under the whole sky were covered. ²⁰ The waters rose fifteen cubits^[a] higher, and the mountains were covered. ²¹ All flesh died that moved on the earth, including birds, livestock, animals, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. ²² All on the dry land, in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died. ²³ Every living thing was destroyed that was on the surface of the ground, including man, livestock, creeping things, and birds of the sky. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ship. ²⁴ The waters flooded the earth one hundred fifty days.

¹³ When the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, they weighed anchor and sailed along Crete, close to shore. ¹⁴ But before long, a stormy wind beat down from shore, which is called Euroclydon.^{[a] 15} When the ship was caught and couldn’t face the wind, we gave way to it and were driven along. ¹⁶ Running under the lee of a small island called Clauda, we were able, with difficulty, to secure the boat. ¹⁷ After they had hoisted it up, they used cables to help reinforce the ship. Fearing that they would run aground on the Syrtis sand bars, they lowered the sea anchor, and so were driven along. ¹⁸ As we labored exceedingly with the storm, the next day they began to throw things overboard. ¹⁹ On the third day, they threw out the ship’s tackle with their own hands. ²⁰ When neither sun nor stars shone on us for many days, and no small storm pressed on us, all hope that we would be saved was now taken away.

²¹ When they had been long without food, Paul stood up in the middle of them and said, “Sirs, you should have listened to me, and not have set sail from Crete and have gotten this injury and loss. ²² Now I exhort you to cheer up, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. ²³ For there stood by me this night an angel, belonging to the God whose I am and whom I serve, ²⁴ saying, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar. Behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’ ²⁵ Therefore, sirs, cheer up! For I believe God, that it will be just as it has been spoken to me. ²⁶ But we must run aground on a certain island.”

²⁷ But when the fourteenth night had come, as we were driven back and forth in the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors surmised that they were drawing near to some land. ²⁸ They took soundings and found twenty fathoms.^[b] After a little while, they took soundings again, and found fifteen fathoms.^{[c] 29} Fearing that we would run aground on rocky ground, they let go four anchors from the stern, and wished for daylight. ³⁰ As the sailors were trying to flee out of the ship and had lowered the boat into the sea, pretending that they would lay out anchors from the bow, ³¹ Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, “Unless these stay in the ship, you can’t be saved.” ³² Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the boat and let it fall off.

³³ While the day was coming on, Paul begged them all to take some food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you wait and continue fasting, having taken nothing. ³⁴ Therefore I beg you to take some food, for this is for your safety; for not a hair will perish from any of your heads.” ³⁵ When he had said this and had taken bread, he gave thanks to God in the presence of all; then he broke it and began to eat. ³⁶ Then they all cheered up, and they also took food. ³⁷ In all, we were two hundred seventy-six souls on the ship. ³⁸ When they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea.